Overview

The material in this book describes a set of processes that comprise an effective Software Program Management Office (SPMO) function for use in a corporate IT setting. Every business that has people performing project management activities has a need for these processes. In some instances, an organization may already have an SPMO chartered with overall responsibility for each project managed in an enterprise. In those cases, this book will either provide validation of their efforts, or it will provide some new techniques and useful approaches that can be utilized to further improve on their overall implementation of the SPMO. In most cases in business, however, an SPMO is unheard of. Each project managed in the enterprise is unfortunately managed separately from all others (at great cost in both time and money to the enterprise).

From the perspective of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Chief Technology Officer (CTO), this lack of an SPMO function leads to serious shortfalls in the overall management, administration, execution, standardization, and reporting of projects. To effectively administer all of the activities involved in just one project is difficult enough, but for the average CIO, it is normal to have 10 to 20 projects running concurrently under the supervision of a few program managers. Is it any wonder that most projects implemented in corporate America fail to meet their established initial goals?

In order to successfully achieve the desired goals for each of these projects, an effective leader must rely heavily on well-defined, industry-proven, standardized...